Document text
The Red Cross moves on Mail Tribune / Drew Fleming photo From left, Heath Banks, brother Darren Banks and father Bernie Banks work to set up desks and cabinets at the new Red Cross office in the building that formerly housed Medford Four Cinemas. In the background is American Red Cross Southern Oregon manager Janie Lee Naud. Agency will set up shop next door to new DMV By BILL KETTLER Tuesday will be your last chance to give blood to the American Red Cross on Hawthorne Street. Beginning July 30, the Red Cross will collect blood at a new office at 1174 Progress Drive, in the building that formerly housed Medford Four Cinemas. The remodeled building, just east of Biddle Road, also provides space for Driver and Motor Vehicle Services. "We'll have a lot more visibility from Biddle Road," said Janie Lee Naud, who supervises Red Cross blood collection for five southwest Oregon counties. "We accept walk-ins. The public needs to know where we are." The Red Cross will continue to offer first-aid classes and support for disaster victims from its Rogue Valley chapter office at 60 Hawthorne St. Volunteers from the chapter office still will work with blood donors at the new Progress Drive office. "We're still all one big Red Cross," said Marj Jameson, executive director of the Rogue Valley chapter, which includes Jackson and Josephine counties. Jameson said the building on Hawthorne, where the Red Cross has collected blood for the past six years, lacks sufficient space for expanding the blood collection program. New federal privacy regulations for blood donors also will require more space. "We're sorry to be split apart," said Jameson. "It's so nice to be right next door." The Red Cross needs to collect more blood because donations have not kept pace with demand. In its Northwest region (which includes most of Oregon and eastern Washington), the Red Cross has been able to supply just 70 to 80 percent of the blood ordered by hospitals since December. When supplies fall to that level, the Red Cross declares a "yellow alert," with the hope of encouraging more people to donate blood. The current alert is the longest shortage in the region's history, said Claudia Brown, a spokeswoman for the Red Cross in Portland. Brown said America's aging population is one of the main factors behind the growing demand for blood. Patients undergoing heart surgeries, organ transplants and cancer treatments all need blood. "Cancer patients are the No. 1 blood user," she said, noting that chemotherapy patients routinely need blood transfusions because their anti-cancer drugs limit their ability to make new blood cells. A typical cancer patient might need 20 to 30 units of blood during a course of chemotherapy. Surgeries that did not exist 20 or 30 years ago consume large quantities of blood: A typical liver transplant, for example, might require 60 units of blood. Accident victims may need anywhere from 4 to 40 units of blood. Brown said the scarcity of blood has forced some hospitals to postpone some elective surgeries. Representatives from Providence Medford Medical Center and Rogue Valley Medical Center said the shortfall has not affected day-to-day operations at either hospital. Collecting blood during the summer presents special challenges, said Naud, the blood collection supervisor. People who make appointments to donate blood often fail to appear. "They get swept away for a day of fishing or a day with friends," Naud said, "and they forget to come in. "We're scheduling about 50 percent more (appointments) than we normally would," she said. Naud said southwest Oregon residents donate more blood than the national average (5 percent of the eligible population), but Jackson County (5.6 percent) falls behind communities such as Deschutes County (10 percent), Klamath County (9 percent), Douglas County (6.9 percent) or Coos and Curry counties (6 percent). Jameson said many people don't give blood because they're afraid of needles, or they feel like they don't have the time, or they can't get past the inertia that keeps them from donating for the first time. "It might be an hour and a half out of your life, but think of what you're doing," Jameson said. "You're saving somebody's life." To arrange an appointment to donate blood, call the Red Cross at 773-3813. The Medford blood bank is open on Mondays from 12:45 to 5:45 p.m. and Tuesdays from 7:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. Reach reporter Bill Kettler at 776-4492, or e-mail [email protected] Red Cross will begin screening for mad cow This usually fatal disease has spread from Great Britain to Europe, but there is no blood test for it and there is a long latent period before it can be detected. There are no known cases of transmission through human blood transfusion, but animal tests have shown it is possible to transmit the disease through blood. To avoid any chance of contaminating the blood supply, the Red Cross will no longer accept blood from: - donors who have lived in Britain for a cumulative total of three months since 1980; - donors who have lived in any European country for six months since 1980; - donors who have received a blood transfusion in Britain. The new policy may reduce the number of regular Red Cross blood donors by as much as 8 percent, said Claudia Brown, a Red Cross spokeswoman in Portland. The new restrictions, coupled with the growing demand for blood, have prompted the Red Cross' Northwest Chapter to hire a dozen people to recruit new blood donors. Demand for blood has outstripped the supply since December in the Red Cross' Northwest region, which includes most of Oregon and eastern Washington. Brown said the Red Cross hopes current blood donors will help increase the supply. "If each one of our current donors gave one more time per year, that would erase the shortage." Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.